A place for a tired old woman to try to figure things out so that the world makes a bit of sense.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Flimflam at the Podium

Let's say you set yourself up as the antithesis of everything that your opposite is dedicated to. Let's say you make the basis of your policies the principle that your side is right, you get all the benefits of every bit of power you can wield. Let's say that you make power your goal, and much of your power is ripped from a system that doesn't provide it, by force. Let's say that you make access to your consideration available only to your own supporters. Your methods make you anathema to decent people, and you lose much of your support.

What is your answer? Demand that your opposition work with you if they are to achieve the beneficent results you've worked hard against for the past six years.

The cretin in chief has an office, the presidency, going for him. That he gained it by dishonesty, and outright lies, doesn't demean the office itself. I hope. It's his last, best hope, and his present policy is to use his office to keep decent people from gaining decent objectives.

On health insurance , well, there isn't anything more that I can say that hasn't been said. Instead of promoting public well-being, his plan is a benefit for the corporations that this president gives our country's wealth to serve. On energy 'independence', with the precedent that's been set already on the awards of contracts to friends seeking public funds, we know the results will not be good for us. Global warming has advanced without check over the past six years, and the president has been forced to make a few passes at it. And the escalation of a shameful war can't be glossed over as a sincere effort to achieve 'success', a 'success' that increasingly is just another extension of ill-gotten gains at the sacrifice of our country's moral standing.

Last night's State of the Union Address was not left for the audience to judge, it had all been given out in advance and the apologists had been hard at work long before it occurred. Listening to the comments on C-Span when I got back from another engagement last night, it was the usual divide. And this morning, getting onto CNN to see their polling, it's the usual divide.

We are increasingly familiar with the + or - 30%. They call in to talk shows and demand that the cretin in the presidency has been maligned, is unfortunate in the events he's had to put up with, and that the dirty commie hippies that oppose him are to blame for whatever present evils he's unable to cope with.

We are familiar by association with the + or - 70%, they are the ones like us who want the country saved from the rape that has gone on for the past six years.

There is a really good element in this country that has always made it a great nation. They are the many decent people who resolutely vote for the candidates they conceive of as honest people with the intention of making their country safe from misuse, its force safe from being thrown at foreign countries unwisely for ends that are not in anyone's best interest, its people free to support themselves and their families by honest industry, and its high places populated by honest dedicated public servants. Those good folks are ready to take the country back.

Should the Democrats work with this president? I think not. Working against misuse of power would be a better course to follow. Working toward the end of this atrocity of a war is much better for the country. Working for equitable access to honest reward of labor, to education, to health and safety, these are the ends this congress needs to achieve. These are the ends this administration has determinedly opposed. Working with the White House would only vitiate their honest efforts.

Call it whatever you like, but as Diane pointed out previously in 'No Bipartisanship', this so-called 'bipartisanship' is overly honored even by lip-service. The honest public servants we have elected will do well to stay out of the public trough that administration policies promote, and clean up the mess.